Someone has put fast forward on December and having seemed so far away for so long, Christmas is finally here. The Welton family arrived from the UK this week to join us in their villa and they bought cold weather with them. There was even a frost on the ground this morning but as it's Florida the temperature is rapidly rising and we're now enjoying a beautiful sunny day.

Last weekend we had a mini break with Patty and Jim in Ruskin, They didn't consider 60 miles to be very far away and came and collected us in the car. We last saw them during 2008, the RV disaster year. Jim had said they didn't get up to much but we kept very busy with a different social gathering every day and a great afternoon out in their boat along the Little Manatee River.

Little Miss Piggy

I saw a blood transfusion service bus last week and completely uninfluenced by the offer of free cinema tickets I decided to donate a drop of my highly sought after O negative blood. I was turned down and instead received a T shirt as a consolation prize. I posted this turn of events on Facebook and a school friend commented that this was because us Brits are considered to be a high risk as potential carriers of BSE. As she has lived in Colorado for the past 9 years I view this as sound information. I had naturally assumed that they couldn't cope with my fine blue blood, but no, bovine rather than blue. Typical.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas wherever you are.Lots of Love Ali and Mike xxx